I never know quite what to do with New Year. I love the Advent season of preparation (I generally read something from the Hebrew Scriptures, this time it was Ezekiel) and get all excited about Christmas, and then New Year muscles in and steals its thunder. There's something about New Year I always find anticlimactic, … Continue reading Thank you to my readers
I suspect you only need to spend a short time with British Quakers before you hear the phrase ‘that of God in every one’. It may take a much longer time before someone tells you what they think it means. In this post I’ll explore the various meanings of this phrase, and how theologian Jürgen … Continue reading What is ‘that-of-God in everyone’?
I learned that men don't kiss men when I was about 11. We were visiting an aunt and uncle, and I kissed my aunty when we were greeted at the door. As I moved to kiss my uncle, he stuck a hand out for me to shake. The gesture was very clear. I was too … Continue reading ‘Greet one another with a holy kiss (unless you’re both men)’
Hello Jolly Quaker readers. I hope you've had a good summer. Mine's been busy, often too busy, but full of things to be thankful for. Here's a short update about my blog and the plans I have for it. You may have noticed that I've posted very infrequently over the last year. That's because I've … Continue reading An update from Jolly Quaker
As a Christian Quaker living in a post-Christian Quaker culture, I'm occasionally called upon to explain my Christianity to my fellow Quakers. I recently did this by saying 'Jesus is the key that unlocks my experience of the world'. I was then asked 'could you say more about that?', and I didn't really have an … Continue reading Jesus the key to my experience
Dear readers and followers of Jolly Quaker, 2018 has been a quieter year on the blog than I'd anticipated, and I haven't produced the bumper crop of posts I'd hoped for, but in many ways this has been a good year for the blog behind the scenes. I'm still operating on the principle that when … Continue reading Thank you to my readers in 2018
This is a theological 'threshing'. In the Quaker tradition, threshing is a lively process of getting to the heart of an issue, separating the wheat from the chaff. When a theological problem bugs me, I want to thresh it out! I may not come up with an answer, but hopefully I'll bring out some important … Continue reading Do Quakers have souls?
I've written a piece for the Woodbrooke Learning Blog on how religion at its best teaches us to live adventurously in a dangerous world. You can find it here. The Woodbrooke blog unfortunately has no comments facility, so feel free to comment on it here. Enjoy!
Dear readers and followers of Jolly Quaker, 2017 has, in one way or another, been a challenging year for me, but blogging continues to be one of my chief joys. I write this blog for myself. It helps me organise and articulate my thoughts. The act of writing a post and putting it out there … Continue reading Thank you to my readers
In this post I'm going to get rather theological. Hopefully in a clear and understandable way. I recently wrote an essay for my theology MA, exploring the modern Western theological movement known as postliberalism. I'd like to have a go at explaining it in a less technical way, whilst also reflecting on what it might have … Continue reading ‘I’m religious, not spiritual’: Postliberalism for Quakers
One mum in a world of mums trying to figure this all out; raising children whilst living in climate breakdown.
I write about anything I want to write about.
Thoughts on life, faith, music and meaning
Facing the future in an age of crises
The Blog of Author Steven Colborne
sketches and experiments in thinking about things as related to God
Updates on the Ministry of Friends United Meeting in Belize
Trying to reduce plastic waste in every day life
I'll work out what it's about as I go along
Thoughts on being a Quaker in the 21st century
Exploring Quaker spirituality, history, faith & practice
The river is within us, the sea is all about us. T S Eliot, Four Quartets
May love have the victory!
Folk School • Ecovillage • Farm
on trial for disrupting WMDs
Disestablishmentarianism in the UK, okay?
Jolly Quaker 